some words

[whorlpool]

I just wrote what follows as a response to someone in my last entry, but I think my words have wider relevance, so I'm posting them here as a separate entry. Let me preface it by saying this: when I started this journal something like eight or nine years ago, I had a wide variety of people reading it, including quite a few with who I disagree on a

Comments

well said.

[womanonfire]

wow.

[monkey]

excellently put. :-)

[reveritas]

it seems like you had your comments off from the time you moved to canada (something tons of us would like to have done, but it wasn't that we didn't have the guts: it was that we didn't pass the "are you cool enough to move to canada" test. i know -- i took it). and now they're back on since obama is elected. this is a good thing but just something i noticed, tell me if i'm dead off.

..

[whorlpool]

Mostly, the closed comments are because I'm trying to spend minimal time on the internet, so I don't want to get sucked into spending hours here. In this particular case, though, I felt like a little bit of conversation.

1

[dcl]

I am the one conservative, I assume. It sounds impossibly cheesy, but it's been an honor to remain on your list, Scott. What drew me to you the most - in the beginning - was your sense of idealism, your endless optimism, and your hope. I don't share it, I never have. I'll even admit to being somewhat envious of it. I wish I could see things as you do. It may or may not change things, but I wish I could see it

Re: 1

[whorlpool]

I guess what I've seen, living in Canada, is that not all political figures are corrupt. They're political figures, definitely, and that means they're Machievellian and selfish and prone to human foibles squared. But they're not all corrupt. Interestingly, I see a lot of your points made my the far left party here against the two parties in the centre. I find that the arguments made on the left and the right tend to be very similar, in fact, and that's probably why I consider myself a centrist. One of my ideals, really, is very simple: I want a competent government that considers the interest of all of its citizens, not just those who agree with its political underpinnings. Governments on the left are as prone to ignore the centre and right as governments on the right are. Both governments use the centre for their political purposes. From the centre, you tend to have to be responsible to more people and are more likely to listen to a variety of opinions. In theory, at least

2

[dcl]

I'd like to see someone who is truly different come along

Re: 2

[whorlpool]

Well, neither of us has enough info to answer any of this definitively. All I can really say is that my perspective on the rest of the world is more nuanced than yours. That's what happens when you live outside of the US; you see perspectives that simply don't get published inside the country. This is true for every country; the outsider's perspective comes with important insight

Re: 2

[dcl]

What struck me most about this post is your use of the word "fear."

I'm going to think on it...and probably respond tomorrow.

Re: 2

[whorlpool]

More than anything else, what I notice as a difference between Toronto and every other place I've ever lived is that in Toronto, there is no fear. It's been a new experience for me. There's no fear. Feeling what it's like to live fearless is the root of the change in my life. It has made me question everything, every single one of my assumptions about what life is and how people live. Knowing that it's even possible to live in a place with no fear...that's a profound thought, and I can honestly say it's a thought I never, never not even once, had before coming here. Every single day I am astounded anew by the experience.

Fearless. I could write a dissertation on this. It's possible to exist without fear, and I'm doing so right now.